Electrical connectors for telemetering drill strings

Claim 1

In a telemetering drill string in which segments of an insulated electrical conductor are joined by electrical connectors in mating portions of drill string pipe joints that contain mating shoulders, an improvement in the arrangement of electrical connectors comprising: a. in each drill string pipe joint, said joints comprising the union of a male and a female threaded member, positioning in each of said joints a first and a second ring-shaped substantially full-circle contact-making ring, said first ring being positioned in said male member in a groove between said shoulder and the threaded portion of said member, said second ring being positioned in said female member in a cavity between said shoulder and the threaded portion of said member, each of said rings being in electrical contact with a segment of said insulated electrical conductor, electrically insulated from the member in which it is positioned and having a contact surface forming an angle from 15* to 65* with the longitudinal axis of said drill string; b. a first and second sealing means positioned in each drill string pipe joint to sealingly separate said rings from fluids inside and outside said drill string, said first sealing means being positioned between said rings and the outer diameter of said drill string pipe and said second sealing means being positioned between said rings and the threaded portion of said joint; and, c. resilient biasing means operatively associated with at least one of said rings to urge said ring toward a position from which it is displaced by the adjacent contact-making ring as the members are screwed together.